105 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

 

To make the paste (preferred), you will also need Modified Food Starch. (It MUST be modified). I get mine from a health food store. It's also known as Clear Gel.

 

 

Why modified? Have you tried other thickeners such as flour? What about adding some whiskey so the ants relax a bit? (jk...)

 

Edit: Or Pectin? and red wine...

Edited by Foogoo, February 23 2015 - 3:11 PM.

[Chromerust]

To make the paste (preferred), you will also need Modified Food Starch. (It MUST be modified). I get mine from a health food store. It's also known as Clear Gel.

 
Why modified? Have you tried other thickeners such as flour? What about adding some whiskey so the ants relax a bit? (jk...)
 
Edit: Or Pectin? and red wine...

You can try whatever you want, but from what I understand regular corn starch can break down and spoil. It will get runny and stink up everything. I think flour would be way too sticky and you will need to use a lot. I don't know if ants will eat flour. It takes very little modified starch to thicken my recipe. If it ain't broke don't try and fix it I say. You're on your own with the whiskey lol

[Foogoo]

Crazy Friday night, ready to try this recipe!

 

 

[Chromerust]

Haha is the beer for you or the ants?

[SMILEforAnts]

Dope recipe! Thanks for sharing. I will try this out one day.

[Foogoo]

Dope recipe! Thanks for sharing. I will try this out one day.

It's really, really easy. I didn't think it would be a big deal to double the recipe since my can of chicken was 1c, but it makes a LOT! Hopefully they'll stay ok in the freezer.

[SMILEforAnts]

 

Dope recipe! Thanks for sharing. I will try this out one day.

It's really, really easy. I didn't think it would be a big deal to double the recipe since my can of chicken was 1c, but it makes a LOT! Hopefully they'll stay ok in the freezer.

 

 

That's good to know! With 54 queens in my Pheidole megacephala colony, I'll need all the food I can get my hands on!

[Miles]

That's good to know! With 54 queens in my Pheidole megacephala colony, I'll need all the food I can get my hands on!

 

That's insane! I once caught a Pheidole megacephala queen in Maui. As thrilled as I was, given that my area (not my state) is devoid of Pheidole, I did not keep her for both legal and ethical reasons.

[Chromerust]

Dope recipe! Thanks for sharing. I will try this out one day.

It's really, really easy. I didn't think it would be a big deal to double the recipe since my can of chicken was 1c, but it makes a LOT! Hopefully they'll stay ok in the freezer.

It does make a lot, that's part of the reason the recipe is one half cup. The other reason is my cat is really good at getting me to give him the other half lol.

[Foogoo]

 

 

Dope recipe! Thanks for sharing. I will try this out one day.

It's really, really easy. I didn't think it would be a big deal to double the recipe since my can of chicken was 1c, but it makes a LOT! Hopefully they'll stay ok in the freezer.

It does make a lot, that's part of the reason the recipe is one half cup. The other reason is my cat is really good at getting me to give him the other half lol.

 

Funny you should mention that, my cat was going CRAZY. In retrospect, a little chicken wouldn't have hurt. But would have probably reinforced his begging...

[SMILEforAnts]

 

That's good to know! With 54 queens in my Pheidole megacephala colony, I'll need all the food I can get my hands on!

 

That's insane! I once caught a Pheidole megacephala queen in Maui. As thrilled as I was, given that my area (not my state) is devoid of Pheidole, I did not keep her for both legal and ethical reasons.

 

 

Yeah that would be a big no no. But hey, I like to think I'm helping out the environment you know, since I'm taking the egg laying queens out of the wild, but in reality doing that barely makes a dent lol. There's this one nest that I keep getting the queens from and that nest always seems to have queens when I go back to it. And I got like 75% of my queens from that nest.

[Gregory2455]

 

That's good to know! With 54 queens in my Pheidole megacephala colony, I'll need all the food I can get my hands on!

 

That's insane! I once caught a Pheidole megacephala queen in Maui. As thrilled as I was, given that my area (not my state) is devoid of Pheidole, I did not keep her for both legal and ethical reasons.

 

Kind of smart. Considering it is Pheidole megacephala. Too bad it could not have been some other, not-so-invasive Pheidole sp. 

[Foogoo]

Do you typically feed the paste form? I'm wondering if I made my paste too thick, it takes a good 10 minutes of stirring when I take it from the fridge to get it to a good consistency. Mine also seems to mold quickly, which is unfortunate for my Pogonomyrmex and Pheidole who like to hoard chunks.

[Chromerust]

Anything can mold with the right conditions but honestly I don't experience molding problems. My ants eat it all or leftovers dry up since my setups are not very humid. I guess you need to use less. As for the thickness I make mine pretty soft. It comes out of the fridge just right. Add some water I guess.

[Foogoo]

Camponotus happily eating a new batch I took from the freezer tonight:

For being a slow growing, nocturnal species that haven't done much in the last year other than die, they've definitely got the best manners of all my colonies. They always jump in and eat whatever I offer.

[Bearcoon]

Nevermind

Edited by Bearcoon, March 26 2015 - 12:17 PM.

[Crystals]

I added this to the List of Handy Links which is pinned in the General section.

[Crystals]

Chromerust, have you ever tried using unflavored gelatin instead?

 

I know in the aquarium hobby we made pleco/snail jello using (thawed) frozen veggies which were blenderized.  Then brought to the start of a boil and mixed in the unflavored gelatin.  About 1 cup puree to 1 packet (1 TBSP) of unflavored gelatin.  Spread out and left to set overnight in the fridge and frozen until needed.

 

I might try your recipe, but I will likely alter it a bit and blender in some crickets, mealworms, and some other insects just for curiousity's sake.  Might seperate some to try the gelatin.

[Chromerust]

No I haven't experimented using different ingredients really. I used what I already had at home and that was good enough for me. Let us know what happens if you try the gelatin ok, I'm a bit curious now.

[Crystals]

Well, I tried a modification of Chromerust's ant food.

 

Two variations actually, as one was a slurry, and the other became a jello.

 

I used:

1 can chicken flakes (no actual chunks of chicken in the store) which were rinsed several times

2 TBSP hummingbird nectar powder

1TBSP honey

2 small slices of orange

2 small slices of apple

~50 medium crickets

~80 mealworms

~1/2 cup water

 

I used the blender to create a semi thick slurry.

And I poured half into a pot, bought to the start of a boil and added one packet of unflavored gelatin (1 TBSP).

 

While waiting for the gelatin to set I scraped some leftover chicken out of the can and put it in a few colonies.

I then offered a drop of slurry to most colonies.  By then the jello had mostly set so I offered it to a few colonies.

 

1/2 hour later I checked the colonies.

 

My Tapinoma sessile are hypnotized by the plain chicken - I rarely see a strong feeding response from them.  The slurry has almost zero attention.  The jello is building attention, but the chicken wins.

 

Camponotus (small colonies <15 workers in test tubes).  Most are scared of the slurry.  I don't blame them, it smells like canned chicken with a twist....  A few are guzzling it down.

I put a piece of chicken in one of the test tubes and they do not appreciate it.  It must smell pretty good in there, because I have 8 workers yanking on the cotton trying to get out of the tube.  Usually only 3 play tug of war.

 

Camponotus (Small colonies 15-25 workers with a foraging area).  Those with nectar available 24/7 aren't sure what to make of it.  Those without the nectar available are mostly chowing down on the slurry.

 

Formica neorufibarbis and Formica podzolica are ignoring the slurry and jello in favor of the chicken.

 

Update: the next day I offered jello to the colonies.  3/4 of the Camponotus showed a good feeding response.  The Formica still didn't care much for it.  The Tapinoma had a slight feeding response.

 

 

I can definitely see this being a handy addition for people with very large colonies, or colonies that eat a lot.

 

Next time I will try another variation comprising 1 can of chicken, 30 or so medium crickets, and humming bird nectar.  I will omit the honey, since most of my ants don't like it anyways.

But for now I have 1 cup of slurry (most in the freezer), and a 6"x6" tray of jello....